From the Underbelly
Life expectancy of memes and digital trends can vary significantly, from days to weeks, months to years. Think the difference between a political gaffe making a week-long run in meme form on social networks vs. the everlasting Rickroll. The recent rise of Unimpressed McKayla Maroney vs. the long-standing Socially Awkward Penguin.

Over the past few days, a game of one-upmanship has surfaced, likely to make its way to a Facebook stream near you: The hair flip.

While this isn’t exactly a new trend (Google hairflip images), Reddit users have been posting photos of (mostly) women flipping their hair, spraying water in an arc. This is likely in reference to the grand matriarch of hairflipping, the little mermaid Ariel.

Users will one-up one another by posting photos, then adding comments like “I see your three-woman salute, and raise you this epic hairflip.” Check out the latest crop:

While it might be a stretch for digital & social marketing, think of it this way: Commercial and entertaining content we produce has the potential to take on a life of its own. Read my previous post on digital content “ownership.” While I doubt Disney could have predicted the impact of its movie on digital culture, the iconic scene lives on, now evolved and expressed for upvotes and Reddit karma 20 years later.

From the Underbelly
Love or hate Creed, one must admit: the bastardization of Scott Stapp’s “Six Feet from the Edge” proves rather mesmerizing. This little gem jumped (organically) more than 20,000 views in less than 10 hours.